Reviews

A derivation of the Greek term for executing the primal urge of death, decay and destruction, Thanatotic Desire embrace a potent death/thrash metal blend on their second full-length With Murder in Mind. Read more […]

Some may think that the days of hard-hitting, brutal melodic death may be something more relegated to the past. After all, most think of the music and immediately move towards more modern (clean/harsh) Read more […]

The Spanish goregrind veterans of Haemorrhage are already up to their seventh album with We Are the Gore. Their first since 2011’s Hospital Carnage, the band has keep themselves busy with plenty of Read more […]

Thankfully resurrecting once again as an active band following a brief hiatus after their last studio record in 2011 The Scourge of the Light, Jag Panzer stride with veteran resiliency into The Deviant Read more […]

Eternally beloved for those can’t-miss mid-’90s The Gathering albums (that would be Mandylion and Nighttime Birds), Dutch siren Anneke Van Giersbergen is a trailblazer. Flung into the metal scene when Read more […]

In search of something brutal? Need something that will erase all the pain and agony of your day with sheer visceral carnage? Well, Devangelic are certainly in the market to help you out. The band’s Read more […]

Wolves in the Throne Room’s 2007 opus Two Hunters served as the ultimate career and sub-sub-genre jumpstart. Prior to that, Cascadian or “wooden” black metal was virtually nonexistent on these shores, Read more […]

From the land of crazy and sometimes completely over the top tech death (we speak of Canada of course) comes Inverted Serenity. And while they might not make your head explode from the combination of Read more […]

Acephalix have been making their way through the underground now for 10 years and two previous full-lengths. In addition, some of their members are involved with other deathly acts such as Vastum and Read more […]

Labels at this point when it comes to music can be quite difficult. What’s crossover thrash to one person could be metallic hardcore to another – never mind the straight-ahead versions of each. Which Read more […]

After a significant absence up to the point of 2015’s return with The Great Bazaar, things are apparently moving along for the Subterranean Masquerade crew. Vagabond is only two years removed from their Read more […]

Necrovorous has a 2006 demo entitled Revenge of the Booger. Now, juvenile humor has never fully been out of view in death metal. After all, the style was founded upon semi-comedic tales of zombies, splatter, Read more […]

Oftentimes, new bands have a problem standing out. Influences show too readily, or it’s an attempt to fit in and sound like a certain subgenre. But Act of Defiance’s debut, Birth and the Burial, Read more […]

Of the tech-death infused Unique Leader horde, Arkaik often stand out in their ability to take brutal compositions and bring in intricate playing that doesn’t take away from the menacing and blunt force Read more […]

The full tap into blackened sludge is getting down to its last drop. You know, when you start smacking the bottle (cue inanimate object) to try and squeeze whatever iota of liquid is left. That’s the Read more […]

The untimely 2016 passing of Juha Raivio’s significant other Aleah Starbridge has, obviously, had a lasting effect on the Swallow the Sun leader. The duo’s most-excellent Trees of Eternity project Read more […]

Coming on my aural radar screen through his recruitment to Let Us Prey, guitarist Rithiya Henry Khiev has quite a pedigree in the progressive thrash/death fields through his work in Alterius and Mortis Read more […]

As a style, deathcore more or less came out and stagnated. As a shift away from more traditional death metal, many bands simply jumped on board with what bands like Carnifex and Whitechapel were doing Read more […]

When one reads the list of the guest appearances on The Ichor Carcinoma, it reads like a metal birthday party. Buried Realm mainman Josh Dummer enlisted a ton of metal talent for this debut, with just Read more […]

The last time we checked in with French act Slave One was their previous album, Disclosed Dioptric Principles in early 2016. New year, new release – in the case of An Abstract and Metaphysical Approach Read more […]

In the 1980’s when thrash first exploded, areas like San Francisco, New York, and Germany of course put the style on the map. Subsequently, a new generation from all parts of the globe felt the desire Read more […]

When it comes to tech-death, one band that’s normally right at the top of people’s lists is that of Archspire. Maybe it was the successful ‘stay tech’ campaign, but more likely it’s the band’s Read more […]

Frankly, there is no comparison between Air Raid’s new vocalist Fredrik Werner and their previous, Arthur Anderson. Anderson, nasally, thin and trebly, bore little conviction on the band’s 2014 Point Read more […]

Just a ton of different ideas going on with Psy:code’s third release, MØRKE. Death metal, hardcore, post-metal, groove metal, the list could continue on…Psy:code give it an honest shot at running Read more […]

Persona put themselves onto the map early in 2016 with their debut Elusive Reflections. A strong album that took the symphonic/progressive template and enriched it with some geographic influences and Read more […]

The same thought usually persists with U.K. “progressive” doom outfit The Prophecy: they should be given a lot more credit for carrying British doom than they do. Let’s not get into the scuttlebutt Read more […]

As one of the better bands to emerge from the doom/sludge logjam, Vancouver’s Bison (no more “B.C.”) had the good fortune of Metal Blade backing for their first three full-lengths: 2008’s Quiet Read more […]

At 25 years and now 11 studio albums, Austria’s Belphegor have reached the point where most extreme metal bands are past their point of usefulness. Look at any number of forerunning American, European Read more […]

Not the New Zealand blackened group that would turn power metal from the late 1990’s and spawn Dragonforce, this four-piece from Chile arrived on the scene in 2011 and have two demos plus an EP under Read more […]

If there’s one thing to be said for Exogenesis’ Procreation, it’s certainly pissed off. Sometimes an album simply reeks of anger, and Exogenesis nail that emotion quite well with their debut EP. Read more […]